Fukuoka Ichimonji Muneyoshi

Fukuoka Ichimonji Muneyoshi was a swordsmith active in Fukuoka in Bizen Province (present-day Setouchi City, Okayama Prefecture) from the beginning to the first half of the Kamakura period. He worked as a Ko-Ichimonji smith and as one of the ban-kaji (court rotation smiths) of Retired Emperor Go-Toba, and he is one of the master smiths representing the Fukuoka Ichimonji school. The Fukuoka Ichimonji school is the representative school of Bizen blades that arose in the early Kamakura period, and Muneyoshi is known as a smith who was listed among the ban-kaji of Retired Emperor Go-Toba on the seventh-month rotation. The forged steel shows fine, tight ko-itame, with bright ji-nie and distinct utsuri standing out, and it displays the essence of the Bizen tradition. The hamon is said to be based on a suguha-based ko-chōji midare, drawing on the Ko-Bizen school lineage seen in the early Fukuoka Ichimonji.